Report on the implementation of the 2014 plan for national economic and social development and on the 2015 draft plan for national economic and social development (11)

III. Major Tasks for Economic and Social Development in 2015

This year we will carry out work on the following eight areas:

1. Promoting domestic demand to give a stronger impetus to economic growth

We will rev up new engines for driving economic development, promote the fundamental role of consumer spending and the key role of investment in stimulating growth, and make sure that fluctuations in the growth rate do not weaken the good momentum of China’s economic development and that the quality of our growth increases with the size of our economy.

1) We will promote consumer spending and upgrade its structure through multi-point support. Total retail sales of consumer goods are expected to increase by 13% in 2015.

First, we will promote increases in personal income through various channels. We will issue and implement supporting measures for deepening reform of the income distribution system. Basic pension benefits for enterprise retirees will be raised by another 10%. We will reform the old-age insurance system for employees of Party and government offices and public institutions, while at the same time improving their pay systems. We will utilize the mechanism for increasing social assistance and social security benefits in line with rises in consumer prices to ensure basic living conditions for those in need.

Second, we will accelerate our efforts to nurture new growth areas in consumer spending. We will vigorously promote consumer spending in areas such as elderly care, domestic services, health, information, tourism, recreation, green products, housing, education, culture, and sports, encourage non-government parties to establish and operate institutions that provide services such as elderly care, fitness services, health care, and medical care, and accelerate the pace of implementing the National Broadband Internet Agenda and projects to expand broadband technology in townships and villages.

Third, we will improve the environment for consumer spending. We will speed up the establishment of a national unified system of codes for rating credit and a platform for sharing and communicating information on credit, and make concerted efforts to increase credit-related punishment. We will establish sound systems for monitoring and regulating the quality of products, for tracking product production details, and for recalling products, and intensify monitoring and regulation over the quality and safety of on-line goods. We will improve the system for food and drug oversight and our capacity for carrying out oversight, and resolutely crack down on the manufacture and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods. We will conduct special inspections to monitor charges concerning education, medical care, and tourism, give full play to the role of the 12358 hotline and website in handling price-related complaints and managing information on pricing, and investigate and deal with cases of monopolistic pricing and practices of price fraud in accordance with the law.

2) We will work hard to sustain steady growth in investment. Total fixed-asset investment is projected to increase by 15% in 2015.

First, we will expand effective investment by adopting a full range of measures. We will coordinate all kinds of government investment and encourage and guide nongovernmental investment to make sure that major projects as specified in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan are completed and a number of new important projects are launched. These new projects include major transportation projects to build railways and highways in the central and western regions and develop inland waterways; major projects involving information, electricity, oil, and gas networks; clean energy projects and projects to ensure supplies of oil, gas, and mineral resources; agricultural projects to improve water conservancy and develop high-yield cropland; projects related to scientific and technological innovation and structural upgrading; projects concerning people’s wellbeing, such as those to rebuild run-down areas, renovate dilapidated houses, and build urban pipeline networks; and projects aimed at energy conservation, environmental protection, and ecological improvement. With the focus on shoring up our weak spots, adjusting the economic structure, and increasing the supply of public goods and services, these projects are of overall, fundamental, and strategic importance to China’s development, and will generate both short-term and long-term benefits.

Second, we will make innovations in mechanisms to stimulate nongovernmental investment. We will improve the role of treasury funds in supporting investment. For industries in competitive areas, we will change our way of providing support from making direct investments in specific projects to establishing investment funds in order to attract nongovernmental investment. We will actively encourage nongovernmental capital to initiate and set up industrial investment funds and equity funds. We will be more creative in using government investment, encouraging nongovernmental investment into major projects by subsidizing investment, injecting capital, and other measures.

Third, we will give full play to the leading role of budgetary investment. Appropriation for investment in the central government budget this year is planned to be 477.6 billion yuan. More of this investment will be directed toward agriculture, water conservancy, railways in the central and western regions, government-subsidized housing, major infrastructure, ecological improvement, people’s wellbeing, and old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and poor areas. We will reduce central government subsidies toward extensive local endeavors consisting of large numbers of minor projects, and make no more investment to general projects in competitive areas. Meanwhile, we will strengthen supervision and management of government funds.